JAECO Orthopedic: Building on a Legacy of Independence

How a family-owned Arkansas manufacturer is modernizing a 70-year-old business while keeping its focus on the people behind every product.

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When Robert Jones and his spouse acquired JAECO Orthopedic three years ago, they were stepping into a company with a history that stretched back generations. Founded in 1955, JAECO has spent decades developing upper-extremity orthopedic equipment designed to help people regain movement and independence. Today, the Hot Springs, Arkansas, manufacturer continues that work while also taking a hard look at how the business itself needs to operate in order to grow.

JAECO manufactures mobile arm supports, splint systems, and other upper-extremity orthopedic equipment for people living with conditions that limit their ability to move or lift their arms. Its products are designed around a simple but important idea: helping people use the strength and movement they still have in new ways so they can accomplish everyday tasks on their own. The company's WREX, for example, is a dynamic orthosis designed to improve upper-extremity movement for people with conditions including spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and other neuromuscular disabilities.

For Robert, the most meaningful measure of the company's success isn't simply how many products leave the facility. It's what those products allow someone to do afterward.

One example that has stayed with him involved a local customer who was able to hug her mother because of the equipment. Moments like that are what Robert believes should remain at the center of the business. Instead of starting a conversation with a customer by asking which product they need, JAECO starts by asking what the person wants to be able to do.

“The most important thing is finding out what the person wants to accomplish, and then figuring out how we can help them get there.”

That people-first approach has remained consistent, even as the company has undergone significant operational changes. When Robert and his spouse took over, they found a business that had been shaped by decades of experience, but much of that knowledge had never been formally documented. Long-time employees knew how things worked, but there were few written Standard Operating Procedures to capture those processes.

At the same time, the company was dealing with outdated financial reporting, the effects of COVID-19, and a manufacturing model built around producing large batches of products that could remain on shelves for years. Robert began working to change that model, moving toward smaller and more frequent production runs while improving financial reporting to better understand what it actually costs to manufacture each product.

Today, JAECO operates out of a 7,000-square-foot facility in Hot Springs, with approximately 2,500 square feet dedicated to manufacturing, including CNC and manual equipment, along with an assembly room and warehouse space. The company has three full-time and two part-time employees.

The goal isn't to turn JAECO into a massive operation overnight. Robert is taking a more measured approach, focusing on stability, efficiency, and reaching the right customers. One of the biggest opportunities is marketing. Because JAECO operates in a specialized healthcare market, reaching the right people can be difficult and expensive. Robert wants to build a more focused strategy around the patients and healthcare systems most likely to benefit from the company's products.

Over the next year, that means developing a marketing plan that targets areas within a 50-mile radius of 10 of the country's leading spinal cord injury and trauma hospitals. The idea is to reach patients and families earlier in their care journey, when they may first be learning about equipment that could help them regain some independence.

JAECO also has an international presence, with products reaching customers and institutions such as Oxford University. But Robert sees an opportunity to build stronger connections with state resources that can help the company navigate international trade and expand those relationships.

For a company with a history dating back to 1955, modernization doesn't mean leaving that history behind. It means finding ways to carry what has worked into the future while fixing the parts of the business that have held it back.

That's where RAMP comes in.

Robert connected with the program through SCORE and saw an opportunity to continue moving JAECO from a long-standing family business toward a more modern manufacturing company. Through RAMP, he is looking for better ways to manage the business, strengthen marketing, improve financial reporting, and connect with other manufacturers and support organizations.

At the same time, JAECO is beginning to tell more of its own story. The company has decades of history, but much of that story has never been shared publicly. RAMP is helping bring that history forward through a new storytelling and content strategy focused not only on the products JAECO builds, but on the people whose lives those products impact.

“We don't want to grow just for the sake of growing. We want to make sure we're stable, we're doing things right, and we're reaching the people who actually need what we make.”

For JAECO Orthopedic, the future is about modernizing without losing sight of why the company exists in the first place. After 70 years of building equipment that helps people move, work, and live more independently, Robert is focused on making sure the business is positioned to continue that work for the next generation.